A new hero starring in a dark and clever game for puzzle platformer fans.

What makes Typoman a hero are not his classic abilities like jumping, climbing ladders, swinging on ropes, pushing and pulling objects, and picking up and throwing things, but the manipulation of letters to change the surroundings and save the world from evil and hate, and the fact that his body is made of the letters H, E, R, and O.

You start off in the prologue chapter as an O, a head in a dumpster, only being able to roll around left and right, but soon you'll find the other letters that add new parts and skills to your body. Typoman is made of beautiful ideas and bleak environments. In an industrial world with smoking factories and dangerous underground caves, characters and enemies are made of the letters they're named after, even objects and situations are represented in often funny and clever placing of letters. It's classic 2D platforming parts mixed with fresh and original word puzzles. You basically try to pull letters together and create "magic words" to get over traps and barricades.

The platforming is good but has a few clunky situations where a bit of practice is needed to overcome the physics. Shuffling around letters would also be a chore, but fortunately you can sort letters on the GamePad with the touchscreen easily. Also on the touchscreen is a very helpful hint system - for every puzzle in the game! One click on the "?" and the game gives you a hint, another click and you get even more hints, and one last click and the game shows you the exact word that is needed to make progress. Of course you should only use it when you're really stuck, otherwise you breeze through the game in a couple of hours. A very frequent autosave and checkpoint system makes sure you won't repeat things you already solved.

Typoman isn't a very long game, as obviously most of the development time of the small indie studio Brainseed Factory was spent on designing original puzzles. That combined with the dark bits of story and a huge final boss make a refreshing and enjoyable game. Also, the folks at Sonic Picnic who made the music for Toki Tori and Swords&Soldiers II did a great job on the soundtrack for Typoman. The beautiful music and crispy sound effects definately add to the games atmosphere.

However, with only 4 chapters it felt like it was over too soon and there are a number of things that could use more polish and content. The quirks in the physics, random annoying framerate stutter (especially in jumping sections), and no off-tv play are rather minor technical issues. More important is that there's no replay value of any kind. Once you've beat the linear story mode there's nothing else to do. No collectibles to find, no alternate paths, no secrets, no scores or time rankings, no achievements, and no multiplayer. Still, the game got many awards for its originality and I think what's there is good and worth your time, unfortunately there's not much to come back to once you're through.